Success breeds a familiar final

Bearden quarterback Jamond Young is the Bears’ leading rusher this season with 597 yards and nine touchdowns.
Bearden quarterback Jamond Young is the Bears’ leading rusher this season with 597 yards and nine touchdowns.

— Bentonville and Fayetteville aren’t the only two schools with a history of playing each other in the state championship game.

Less than a week after the 7A-West powers played for the third consecutive year in a final, 8-2A rivals Junction City and Bearden meet for the Class 2A crown at 7 p.m. today at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

Junction City (13-1) and Bearden (12-2) also played for the Class 2A title in 2009.

“Not surprised to see them again,” Junction City Coach David Carpenter said. “There’s some good clubs out there, and we knew they were one of them.”

The rematch means the 8-2A has placed at least one team in the final six of the past seven seasons.

The Dragons, top-ranked in Class 2A all season, claimed championships in 2008 and 2009. They also won the Class AA state title in 2003.

Bearden, No. 2 in Class 2A, finished state runner-up in 2007 and 2009.

Bearden began 1-2 this fall but has won 11 consecutive games since a 20-14 loss in 8-2A play Sept. 14 at Junction City.

“There were doubters out there with that,” Bears Coach Ernie Horstkamp said of the sluggish start. “We stuck together, players and coaches. We never lost faith in each other, and it’s gotten us here.”

Junction City enters with, statistically, the state’s top defense. The Dragons are allowing just 120.3 total yards and 5.2 points per game and have seven shutouts.

Senior linebacker Hayden Smith has a team-high 121 tackles, including 36 unassisted.

Sophomore defensive end Jamario Bell, 6-6, 225 pounds, has 12 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, 4 pass breakups, 2 interceptions and 2 recovered fumbles. Sophomore tackle Taylor Mason, 6-3, 260, has 7 tackles for loss and 1 sack.

“They are so good defensively up front,” Horstkamp said. “We’ve got to do some different things. We’re not able, necessarily, to just line up and just barrel them off the ball. We’re going to have to do some things to slow them down, whether it’s trapping them or throwing the ball quick. The main thing is just mixing it up.”

Bearden’s leading rusher is sophomore quarterback Jamond Young, who has carried 86 times for 597 yards and 9 touchdowns.

The Bears have two bullish running backs in senior Marcus Flint (194 pounds) and senior B.J. Ross (217), who has been offered a scholarship by Arkansas State. Ross also has a team-high 137 tackles at linebacker.

Junction City’s three state championship teams featured power running from the Wishbone.

The Dragons return to Little Rock with a 1,500-yard rusher, sophomore Jaqwis Dancy but are much more adept throwing. Senior quarterback Shaquille Hunter has completed 81 of 164 passes for 1,420 yards and 25 touchdowns this fall.

Still, Carpenter said there are no secrets between the schools.

“We’ve played Bearden six times in the last four years,” Carpenter said.

“When Ernie and I were talking last week about film swap, he said, ‘We don’t need to swap. We know what each other’s going to do because we play so much.’ ”

Sports, Pages 19 on 12/07/2012

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